Two weeks on the beach. Who could ask for more, right? I really had a relaxing time on my vacation this year thanks to my generous and thoughtful husband. He suggested that I take a week before the rest of our crew came down to Myrtle Beach and our rented beachfront house and just get a small condo to enjoy some extra time away. Of course, I jumped on that.
On Monday the 20th of August, Emily, Asher, Lucy and I decided to make our way south. (we chose not to fight the weekend traffic) Before we even got on 95, Lucy had already had a bout of carsickness because we had failed to eat or drink anything by 7:30 a.m. After stopping, cleaning her up, redressing her, feeding her some ritz (circle) crackers and promising Chick Fil-a soon, we were truly on our way. (thankfully, Emily was driving since it is usually my car that one of the grandchildren decides to douse with some bodily fluid on every trip)
Our first week was complete with rain, rain and a little more rain. The kids never complained. We took them on the first rain filled day to the Ripley's Aquarium only to find that the entire vacationing population had chosen the same place to spend the day. After standing in line for about 30 minutes and purchasing our tickets.....the sun proceeded to come out and shine like it had to. Even that wasn't going to dampen our spirits. We went in...saw the sharks, soft shell crabs, some saw fish (no idea what it was called) cut in half and devour another fish in the tank, and then spend too much money in the gift shop before we headed back to the condo. That day was probable the only real sun we saw for the first week. Every day was either completely overcast or rainy. Still Asher and Lucy ran in the water and played in the sand every single day for hours. It really was a relaxing week.
On Saturday morning we checked out of the condo and headed a little further north to our rented beach house. Since we couldn't check in until 3:00, we decided to just park at the public access and spend the day at the beach waiting for everyone else to arrive. Now is probably a good time to let you know that the temperature at the time we loaded the car...67 degrees. Not really beach weather. Cloudy and overcast despite the weather man assuring us that it was going to be a wonderfully warm and sunny day. Finally about noon things started looking up and we had a glorious day at the beach. However, remember that check in time? Well that simply did not happen. Everyone arrived by 5:30 and we still had no access to the house. We were sitting on the porch with all of the mosquitoes waiting for the cleaning crew to finish and give us the go ahead to begin our vacation. (that coincidentally happened at around 6:15)
Sunday and Monday brought more cloudy days with peaks of sunshine but the children were completely content digging and running on the beach in and out of the waves. It was so nice to be there all together and have the kids all love the water and the sand. Trust me, it hasn't always been that way. Lucy was probably the one who seemed to be the most fearless in the waves. She would get rolled 2 or 3 times before Emily and I could reach her even though one of us was standing right there. Every single time she would pop up and be giggling and rushing right back in. We had so much fun watching all of them enjoy the beach each in their own way and together.
By Tuesday, the rain came back in full force just in time for the guys to head out for a round of golf. Boo to that! We just let the kids play indoors and finally around noon or so it cleared enough to go out to the beach for a while. The rest of the week was warm and overcast with peaks of sun. We didn't even care. The humidity was low, there was a breeze, we were all on the beach together, no one was crying because they were too hot. GLORIOUS! On Friday, our last day, the sun came out and gave us the best day of the two weeks. All day long we enjoyed time on the beach. No one even wanted to come in. It was simply perfect!
One week is not long enough. Two weeks might be close. But I am thinking that next year I 'll just spend a month at the beach and get my fill.
It all comes down to this...spending time with family is something that can never be overdone:)
